Chinese and Bahamian dignitaries celebrated yesterday as workers broke ground on what is being billed as the largest project of its kind in the Caribbean — a megaresort that will be financed and largely built by Beijing.

Baha Mar, a $3.4 billion complex on Nassau’s Cable Beach, will employ some 8,000 workers and is projected to generate a 10 percent boost to the Bahamas gross domestic product, according to developer Baha Mar Ltd.

The development plan calls for four hotels with a total of about 2,250 rooms, as well as a golf course, retail space, a convention center and what the developer says will be the largest casino in the Caribbean.

It is scheduled to open in December 2014 and is aimed largely at North American consumers, who make up the vast majority of tourist visitors to the Bahamas, said Don Robinson, president of Baha Mar.

In overall size, it will be comparable to the Atlantis resort on nearby Paradise Island. But that project was built in stages over a number of years, not all at once like Baha Mar.

For the resort’s concrete and steel main structure, Baha Mar hired China State Construction Engineering Co. , which brought in the Export-Import Bank of China to finance the project when a previous partner dropped out.

As part of its agreement with the Bahamian government, Baha Mar will import about 7,000 Chinese construction workers in stages. The project is also expected to create about 4,000 construction jobs for local workers, the developer said.